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Sam Henderson Reviews
April 1994
The
Comics Journal
#167
Minimalism
By Robert
Boyd
One of the funniest people drawing minicomics is Sam Henderson. Henderson's
drawing is crude, but it has the same kind of energy you see in the work
of today's best gag cartoonists, whose drawing also tends to be a little
basic. Henderson's humor will remind readers of Viz, although
he uses non-sequitur even more than Viz does. Extremely low-brow
humor that almost parodies lowbrow humor — it's enjoyable on either
level. A particularly Viz-like strip is "Li'l Brainy" from The Magic
Whistle #2. We see three panels of Li'l Brainy doing difficult
calculations on his computer. He is, of course, dressed in a bow-tie and
black-plastic framed glasses. Finally, he reaches the conclusion he's
sought, which excites him. Another character asks what it is, and Li'l
Brainy announces, "I've calculated that in my lifetime I've had exactly
1,347 boners!"
A lot of Sam Henderson's cartoons depend on presenting an idea or phrase or image that is, somehow, just plain funny in and of itself, like his strip of a dimwit repeating "Put your weight on it!" over and over. This strip is hilarious even before you get to the punchline. It's obvious that Henderson thinks long and hard about things that seem funny in and of themselves. In The Magic Whistle #1 and #2, there are several pages crammed full of typewritten sentences which are structured like so: "[something] is always funny." For instance, "A self-inflating raft blowing up accidentally in a small room is always funny," "A city person trying to do farm work is always funny," "A victim of an auto accident arriving home with a steering wheel around his neck is always funny," "A dog running away with a woman's bikini top is always funny," etc. You get the feeling that he just didn't have the time to draw these.
A hack movie director could take these and churn out a formulaic but popular comedy quite easily. Henderson has made things even easier for this hypothetical movie hack with his mini The Greatest Teen Movie Ever Made... This is an all-text mini that is simply a list of dumb (but funny) things that would be appropriate for inclusion in a teen comedy. This book is full of "clever" little plot twists like, "VINDICTIVE NERD releases mice at pep rally, STONER TEEN catches mouse and smokes it," or "JUVENILE DELINQUENT TEEN invents high-powered, shit-filled slingshot." Henderson expects us all to have seen some of these stupid movies and laugh at their inanities piled on top of one another like this. But you can imagine someone in Hollywood getting ahold of this and saying, "Get me Henderson!"
Many might remember that Henderson is also the guy who played a practical joke on Scott Russo that ended up getting Russo investigated by the Secret Service. Russo and artist Jeff Wong created a comic book out of the incident, in which Russo lays his bitterness for Henderson out for all to see. Henderson gives his side of the story in "An Open Letter" (from The Magic Whistle #2). Without going into details, Henderson explains that it was a stupid joke and that he's sorry he ever did it. It's a pretty entertaining strip, but he closes it with, "These three pages have been a complete waste of time and space. My apologies to everyone who took the time to read them. The rest of the book is really funny. Trust me." This sums up Henderson's approach and goals. He's not doing these minis to get anytihng off his chest or to create his masterpiece — they're intended to be funny from front to back. And they are.
Henderson has moved from abject slacker-dom to some commercial success lately — his comics are appearing in Nickelodeon magazine (along with David Mazzucchelli, Kaz, Mark Newgarden, and Jay Stephens — check this magazine out!) But his funniest comics are far too ribald to be printed in Nickelodeon. So buy his minicomics, dammit!